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Security report for archive.org

Internet Archive · Technology · United States

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

67/100

Risk levelMedium

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

Internet Archive is a well-established non-profit digital library founded in 1995, providing free universal access to a vast collection of texts, movies, music, and archived web pages through its Wayback Machine. The organization holds a strong market position as a leading digital archive with a large user base and extensive digital content offerings. The website's technical infrastructure leverages modern JavaScript frameworks such as Lit and web components, with partial use of Cloudflare DNS services and Apollo scripts, indicating a mature and modern digital presence. Performance and mobile optimization are good, though accessibility features are basic. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and domain registration protections in place, but DNSSEC is not enabled, representing a minor security gap. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies were found in the provided HTML content, which impacts privacy compliance scoring. Overall, the website is trustworthy, professional, and safe for general audiences.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of archive.org. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
40/ 100 · High
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

5 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Security headers

    Security headers are instructions your web server sends to every visitor’s browser. Missing ones leave visitors more exposed to attacks such as clickjacking and injected scripts.

    • High

      Missing X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • High

      No Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

  3. SSL/TLS

    TLS encrypts the connection and proves the site is really yours. Weak or expiring certificates trigger browser warnings and put traffic at risk.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching archive.org

This scan found 24 issues across 6 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

Daily monitoring

Recommended

€25per month

  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

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Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
72
Security headers
40
Email security
75
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
40
Average
67

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention archive.org, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
374,638
Employees
28
Customers
374,566
Third parties
44
Weak passwords
18%

Latest record dated 2026-05-21 · 423 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for archive.org.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –archive.org2026-05-21
  • –archive.org2026-05-11
  • –archive.org2026-05-03
  • –archive.org2026-02-08
  • –archive.org2026-02-05

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Open in Breach(opens in a new tab)Monitor on Breach(opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

The Internet Archive operates as a non-profit entity focused on digital preservation and universal access to cultural and historical digital content. Its business model centers on providing free access rather than monetization, supported by donations and grants. The organization targets a broad audience including researchers, educators, historians, and the general public. Its competitive advantage lies in its extensive digital collections and the unique Wayback Machine service. The domain age and WHOIS data confirm a consistent and legitimate presence. The lack of visible contact information and formal policies on the main page suggests opportunities to improve transparency and user trust. The organization appears to maintain a focused partnership ecosystem, though no explicit partner domains were identified in the HTML content.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and domain status flags that prevent unauthorized transfers or updates. Security headers for caching control are present, but additional headers like Content-Security-Policy or Strict-Transport-Security were not detected in the provided content. The absence of DNSSEC is a notable security shortfall. No forms or input fields were found, reducing attack surface from input vulnerabilities. There is no published security policy or incident response contact information visible, which could hinder coordinated vulnerability disclosure and incident handling. Overall, the security posture is good but could be enhanced by enabling DNSSEC and publishing formal security and incident response policies.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to strengthen DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear GDPR compliance statements.
  3. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security to enhance protection.
  4. Provide clear contact information including security incident response and abuse contacts.
  5. Improve accessibility features to meet higher standards for users with disabilities.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Internet Archive
Description
Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library offering free universal access to texts, movies & music, as well as 624 billion archived web pages.
Key services
Digital library access to texts, Movies, Music, Wayback Machine for archived web pages
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, Web Components, Lit, Cloudflare (partial DNS), Apollo
Frameworks
Lit
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced (implied by URL and scripts loaded over HTTPS)
  • No caching of HTML to prevent stale content
  • Domain status includes clientTransferProhibited and clientUpdateProhibited

Analytics and tracking

Services
analytics.archive.org
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

Design
good
User experience
good
Content relevance
good
Navigation
good
Professionalism
good
Trustworthiness
high

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges
  2. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found on the main page HTML
  3. No contact emails, phone numbers, or physical addresses found in the provided HTML content
  4. Uses modern JavaScript frameworks and web components
  5. DNSSEC not enabled, which is a minor security gap
  6. No visible forms or data collection fields in the provided HTML content
  7. No social media links explicitly found in the provided HTML content
  8. No advertising or affiliate marketing detected
  9. Good SEO and metadata usage including JSON-LD structured data for website and search action
  10. No explicit security or incident response policies published in the main HTML content
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses modern web technologies including JavaScript modules, Lit framework, and web components, indicating a contemporary front-end architecture. The presence of multiple modulepreload scripts suggests optimization for loading performance. Hosting and DNS are partially managed via Cloudflare secondary nameservers and easyDNS registrar, providing reliable infrastructure. The site uses no visible CMS, indicating a custom or static site architecture. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and JSON-LD structured data for enhanced search engine understanding. Accessibility is basic and could be improved. No forms or user input fields were detected, reducing complexity and potential security risks.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 70/100 +1Medium31 findingsView report
  2. 69/100Medium32 findingsView report
  3. 69/100Medium31 findingsView report
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